STMicro struggles with softening smartphone market

Despite the softening smartphone market, Europe's largest maker of semiconductors STMicroelectronics will recover later in the year, the company's chief executive told CNBC on Tuesday.

STMicroelectronics posted a second-quarter loss more than double that of a year earlier, as it struggles with a softening smartphone market and an uncertain home economy.

"We see a good direction on many products and in the very recent weeks we have seen a softening in the smartphone market but that's it. Overall, the bookings in the second quarter were good," Bozotti told CNBC Europe's "Squawk Box."

"We expect to get back to profit in the fourth quarter of this year," Carlo Bozotti told CNBC.

"Macro trends remain uncertain," Bozotti said in an earlier statement. "We have seen a progressive improvement in bookings in the second quarter, although, towards the end of the second quarter, we experienced a softening in thesmartphone market."

The company recorded a net loss attributable to ST of $152 million in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $75 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

On Monday, STMicro said it expects gross margin of about 33.5 percent in the third quarter, plus or minus 2 percentage points, versus 32.8 percent in the second quarter.